Greetings - and with apologies if this has been covered elsewhere: who or what determines whether one is advanced, intermediate or beginner?

With thanks in advance.

Shane

Excellent question!

I hope that you've read the Competition Levels - Guidelines page, which explains that it is, generally, a self-assessment when you start to enter our competitions. More recently (from about mid-2018), we have invited new members, when they join, to submit a portfolio of 4 images which we (various committe members - all experienced photographers) assess and suggest the competition level that would be appropriate from our evaluation of that (small) sample of images. This is not a mandatory condition that new members must meet before submitting images; it's a process designed to help them initially, should they choose to do so.

Our competitions have annual awards associated with them, and that also affects the level at which people may enter; this is explained on the Competition Levels - Guidelines page.

If you've been a member for longer, and haven't previously entered competitions but are now considering doing so, we suggest that you should look at the galleries for a previous competion, at each level, and decide which level has images of the general standard of those that you produce. Enter at that level, or the one below if you're less confident, and see how you go. Every member can now see how many points their images scored in the member voting process, in the My Photos page, and compare that to the top five scores.

You should also read the Mystery Reviewer's Critiques of images for each level. Our Mystery Reviewers are all experienced photographers/photographic judges, and their rating of images does not always correspond to the member voting results. Their comments may not help you decide which level your images are at, but should certainly assist you to improve your photography - and that's really our overall objective.

Hope this helps,

Rob

Thanks Rob.

Looks like I need to stop skulking in Entry level!